Alyn Smith,author.– Mr President, I will start by congratulating the rapporteurs and colleagues for the very constructive way in which we put this motion together. I think there is a great deal to be recommended within it.

I very much support our previous speaker who set out the background to the Yarmouk refugee camp. Even the way it is described is slightly misleading; this is a long-established Palestinian settlement on the outskirts of Damascus, more of a suburb of a city rather than a camp in its own right. It has been in existence since 1957. It was supposed, of course, to be temporary, but until Palestinian refugees can go home they remain particularly vulnerable. That is where this resolution is important. The Palestinian people are particularly vulnerable within Syria, with upwards of 480 000 Palestinian refugees scattered across 60 camps throughout the wider region. Ninety-five percent of these people rely on UNRWA for their daily needs.

The camp was besieged by the Assad regime forces, creating a humanitarian disaster, and then became a battleground for various other factions, and remains so now. The chaos is a humanitarian crisis unfolding on the very outskirts of the Syrian capital. We must see, as we have expressed in paragraph 9, humanitarian pauses in the fighting as proposed by UN Special Envoy De Mistura. We must also see the EU, as we state in paragraph 10, play a much greater role in brokering a political solution within Syria, and I would also add Palestine to give the refugees a home to go to.

We welcome, of course, Commissioner, the humanitarian aid the EU has given, but in this case the criticism of the EU as a payer rather than a player has never been more just. We must, for the people in the region and indeed ourselves, do better to foster a political solution.

Ignazio Corrao,author.– Mr President, there is an ongoing denial of humanitarian access to the refugees living in the Yarmouk camp by the Syrian regime and other belligerents. The situation is worsened by the fact that UNRWA is gravely undermined by chronic underfunding for humanitarian interventions in Yarmouk.

With this resolution Parliament calls for the European Union to contribute to joint efforts to mitigate the humanitarian crisis and play a role in helping neighbouring countries to provide shelter for refugees fleeing the conflict in Syria. A fundamental step in this direction is to take measures to avoid people risking their lives on boats in the Mediterranean Sea, and to create safe ways for them to reach Europe, such as humanitarian visas and corridors.

Marietje Schaake, on behalf of the ALDE Group.– Mr President, the people in Yarmouk, Syria, face a particularly horrible situation, as do many other innocent people in Syria. They are attacked by the nihilist jihadists of Da’esh and with barrel bombs and other attacks by the murderous regime of President Assad. The war in Syria must be stopped and the EU must lead efforts, diplomatic and otherwise.

Humanitarian aid will require much more money, not only from the EU but especially from Arab countries and others who have not taken up their share of the burden. We have heard the massive outcry after the horrible and tragic deaths in the Mediterranean; I share the sense of sorrow. And the immense misery of the people in and from Syria and the rest of the Middle East region must be met with a more forceful answer from Europe.

When we speak of shelter in the region, at least the most basic of needs must be provided for and it must be safe for people. Indeed – and I agree with my colleague, Josef Weidenholzer – we must bring to justice the perpetrators of these atrocious crimes and attacks against innocent people.

Jonathan Arnott, on behalf of the EFDD Group.– Mr President, yesterday I spoke in this Chamber about the attacks on Christians in Kenya and elsewhere, and there were comments on social media asking why I mentioned that and not other religions. But of course that is what yesterday’s debate was about, and today we are discussing a humanitarian crisis at the Yarmouk refugee camp, which has actually grown to be an awful lot more than just a camp. I would like to assure this House and others that I utterly condemn the way in which the Palestinian people have been treated, every bit as much as I condemned yesterday.

As these injustices continue across that part of that world, day in and day out, I am saddened by the thought that so much of this has its roots in a militarily interventionist foreign policy which has failed in its attempt to protect vulnerable people. In healthcare there is a principle: first do no harm, and that principle goes all the way back to the Hippocratic Oath. Perhaps that principle should be considered by governments over their foreign policies.

Csaba Sógor (PPE).– Mr President, the people who remain in the Yarmouk refugee camp are, as Ban Ki-Moon described it, in the ‘deepest circle of hell’ resulting from Syria’s four-year-long civil war. It is almost unimaginable what these people have gone through prior to April 2015, but what is taking place now in Yarmouk is gruesome. It is also symptomatic of the complexity of the conflict in the region, as these people are caught between the al-Nusra front, the Syrian army, ISIS and many more violent groups and actors.

The European Union provided emergency funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) at the beginning of April. I would hereby like to call on the European Union and the Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO) to develop special measures that are aimed at supporting the most vulnerable groups in conflict-ridden societies: children, women, elderly people, disabled people and ethnic and religious minorities.

Seán Kelly (PPE).– Mr President, I think that in this day and age most people would expect that people would be at least safe in a refugee camp, that they would have access to fresh water and have the basic requirements of food and clothing. Unfortunately, it is not so in this camp which has seen its numbers diminish from 150 000 to 18 000 and which has been described as beyond humane, inhumane. It was also described by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as a ‘circle of hell’. This is terrible.

It has emerged in recent times, as a result of ISIS in particular, that there is no limit to what people are prepared to do in pursuit of violence and their objectives. So we have to try to get all the authorities to respect the neutrality of the camp and try to get good conditions there for the unfortunate occupants.

Neven Mimica,Member of the Commission.– Mr President, on behalf of the High Representative I would like to thank you for adding this important and very sad subject to this week’s plenary agenda. The European Union is seriously concerned at the continued deterioration of the security and humanitarian situation in Syria. The conditions in the Palestinian refugee camp in Yarmouk in particular have become critical and need to be addressed with utmost urgency. After three years of besiegement by the Syrian regime, the recent escalation of violence by different fighting sides is putting the camp’s population at serious risk.

The continued denial of humanitarian access by the Syrian regime and armed opposition groups to the refugees living in Yarmouk is unacceptable. The High Representative made this clear in her statement on behalf of the European Union of 18 April as well as in her Joint Statement with Commissioner Stylianides. The UN Security Council issued a Presidential Statement along the same lines on 20 April.

All sides should cease hostilities to ensure immediate and unhindered humanitarian access to those in need inside the camp and to provide safe passage for all civilians who wish to leave the camp, in accordance with UN Security Council Resolutions 2139, 2165 and 2191. We urge all parties to use their influence over the fighting groups to ensure that these fundamental principles of international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians inside the camps, are fully respected.

We commend the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) for the important work it is doing and we will continue to work together with UNRWA Commissioner-General Pierre Krähenbühl, and all other partners to help alleviate the suffering of the people in greatest need.

The Commission released immediate emergency funding of EUR 2.5 million to UNRWA’s operation to deliver lifesaving assistance to Palestinian refugees in Syria through cash and emergency relief items, and it stands ready to scale it up if needed. This emergency decision came in addition to a EUR 10 million contribution to UNRWA in December last year.

More generally, as part of the European Union’s 2015 humanitarian funding for Syria, the European Union’s support will continue to reinforce the capacity of partner organisations on the ground in order to enable them to provide a rapid humanitarian response in the case of a sudden deterioration of the situation. This funding extends to all parts of Syria affected by the conflict, with specific focus on the recent violence in Yarmouk, Idlib, Dara’a and Aleppo. This emergency funding also goes together with the EUR 33 million contribution to UNRWA provided since 2011 from the European Neighbourhood Instrument to sustain assistance to Palestinian refugees in Syria in cash assistance, education and health.

We also called on the UN Special Envoy, Staffan de Mistura, to work with all parties towards the comprehensive implementation of the Geneva Communiqué of 30 June 2012 leading to a genuine political transition that meets the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people and enables them independently and democratically to determine their own future. We will continue to fully support the victims of the Syria crisis.

Der Präsident. – Die Aussprache ist geschlossen.

Die Abstimmung findet im Anschluss an die nächste Aussprache statt.

Schriftliche Erklärungen (Artikel 162 GO)

Monica Macovei (PPE), in writing.– Syria’s bloody conflict has killed 200 000 people so far. In addition, the life of thousands of civilians from the Yarmouk camp is threatened because of the fighting between the Syrian government and IS militants.

The EU recently imposed a travel ban and an EU asset freeze on 7 persons who provide money to the Syrian regime, but this is not enough. I call upon the EU to totally isolate and defeat the IS militants as a terrorist organisation by completely cutting their funds by imposing additional EU asset freezes. I encourage the EU to create an autonomous sanctions regime to supplement the UN al-Qaeda sanction regime.

The only way to help Syria’s citizens is to seek international consensus at the level of the UNSC and to provide support for a Syrian-led political process leading to peace in accordance with the Geneva Communiqué of 30 June 2012. I therefore urge Syria to immediately implement the UNSC Resolution 2139/2014. I welcome EU’s financial efforts to provide humanitarian aid to the region, especially because the EU has been the leading international donor in response to the Syrian crisis with more than EUR 3.3 billion.

Indrek Tarand (Verts/ALE), in writing.– As recent events have shown, Russia’s backing of the Assad regime had disastrous consequences in Syria. Analogically, France should not prop up Russia’s current expansionist authoritarian regime by providing it with Mistral class warships. It is important to note that although the Mistral deal has been placed on hold due to the situation in Ukraine, the contract has not yet been terminated. This means that potentially the option of delivering those warships to Russia is still on the table, which is totally unacceptable, and can be seen as an insult towards the people who have died in, or been adversely affected by the conflict in Ukraine. Europe has to take a firm stance regarding this conflict, and the most elementary step would be to refrain from providing the aggressor with additional weapons.